St. Martin de Porres Marianist School.Photo: Google Maps
A Catholic school headmaster has been placed on leave after he allegedly forced a young Black student to apologize to his teacher while kneeling, a method he reportedly called “the African way.”
“The manner in which he disciplined a St. Martin’s student was not consistent with the policies and philosophy of St. Martin’s,” the letter read. “I want to assure you that St. Martin’s neither condones nor accepts the actions of our headmaster. The incident does not reflect our long, established values or the established protocols regarding student related issues.”
The incident occurred on Feb. 25, and mom Trisha Paul said her outgoing, bubbly son Trayson, 11, has not been the same since, the New YorkDaily Newsreported.
Paul told the paper that Trayson was in class and had finished an assignment early, so he took out a different assignment and began working on it. At that point, Trayson’s teacher allegedly confronted him about working on the wrong assignment, and tore up his paper in front of the class before taking him to Holian’s office.
In Holian’s office, the headmaster allegedly forced Trayson to get down on his knees to apologize to his teacher.
“My son was humiliated, hurt, embarrassed, sad and confused,” Paul told theNews. “He reads about things happening because of your skin color. To experience it… he’s just trying to process it in his 11-year-old brain.”
On March 1, Paul discussed the incident with Holian over the phone — and that’s when he allegedly mentioned that he’d learned the act of kneeling while saying sorry from a Nigerian father who’d told him it was the “African way” of apologizing, theNewsreported.
“When he finished telling this story, I was just on the phone baffled,” Paul, who is Haitian-American, told theWashington Post. “My child is not Nigerian. We don’t share the same cultures or beliefs. You’re assuming that because my child is Black that he must kneel down as well.”
She added: “He admitted that he asked [Trayson] to kneel down. He didn’t acknowledge what happened was wrong or how I felt. … He wasn’t remorseful or apologetic at all.”
Paul told thePostthat she and Holian met in person three days after the phone call, and he allegedly repeated the story about the Nigerian parent and said he felt as though Trayson’s apology would not have been “genuine” had he been standing while giving it.
“He’s just hurt and humiliated,” Paul said of her son, whom she put back on a remote learning schedule in March.
Holian — who did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment —told theNews, “We love our students here,” and noted that a “vast majority” of students were students of color.
St. Martin’s has about 400 students, and tuition is about $15,000 per year, thePostreported.
source: people.com
